Last week, we delved into the strange. This
week…by God, we’re kicking it up a notch! You wouldn’t
think a single letter would make so much difference,
but as you can see, the transition from "strange"
to "stranger" – and "strangers," of course – has
given us plenty more material to work with. (Don’t
count on seeing a "Strangest" compilation anytime
soon, though.)

"Come In Stranger," Johnny Cash (Johnny
Cash Sings Hank Williams)There are two rather inexplicable things about
this song. The first is that it was released as a single
in 1958 but didn’t make it onto an album until 1960,
and the second is that, although it’s a Cash original,
the album it appears on is entitled Johnny Cash
Sings Hank Williams. Eh, either way, it still
makes for the perfect opener here.

"Red Headed Stranger," Willie Nelson (Red
Headed Stranger)Well, if you’ve got Johnny, you might as well have
Willie, too, right? Actually, if we’d wanted to get
three out of four Highwaymen involved, we also could’ve
tacked on Kris Kristofferson’s "Stranger," but it
would’ve felt like we were trying too hard. It’s
much easier to feel comfortable about including the
title cut of one of Willie’s best albums.

"The Stranger," Billy Joel (The Stranger)Ah, Billy. You lost your hair and gave up pop music.
Why, why, why? Chicks might not dig a bald guy, but
they’re all about guys who can write a song like
this one.

"Stranger in Town," Toto (Isolation)If you’re unfamiliar with your Toto timeline,
this would be after "Africa" and "Rosanna" but before
"I’ll Be Over You" and "Pamela." More importantly,
though, it was the band’s first single after replacing
lead singer Bobby Kimball with Fergie Frederiksen.
Unfortunately, it didn’t really pay off; Isolation was
a relative flop, and Frederiksen left the band not
long afterwards.

"Eyes of a Stranger," The Payola$ (No
Stranger to Danger)I’m sure there are legions of Queensryche
fans currently rising up to kick my ass over my decision
to go with the Payola$ song of this title rather than
the one from Operation: Mindcrime…because,
you know, Bullz-Eye scores really high in the "Queensryche
fans" demographic…but, sorry, I’m a bigger fan of
this track by Paul Hyde and Bob Rock. The Payola$
were bigger in Canada than the States, but their
brilliantly titled best-of collection, Between
a Rock and a Hyde Place, is a good place to
start if you want to find out what they were all
about.

"Stranger in Moscow," Michael Jackson (HIStory)Dammit, it’s depressing to listen to this
song and remember that, even on his less-heralded
albums, Michael Jackson was still capable of brilliance.
I know it’s naïve, but I still think that if he’d
ever get off his ass and surround himself with something
other than yes-men, that guy could make another album
to rival Thriller.

"Perfect Strangers," INXS (Switch)Watching "Rock Star" was a relatively painful
experience, if only because of the history I had
with INXS. The idea that anyone could replace Michael
Hutchence seemed ludicrous. Imagine my surprise,
then, when the album that resulted from the band’s
audition for a new singer turned out to be remarkably
good, with the new guy, J.D. Fortune, sounding spookily
like Hutchence at times. Why wasn’t this released
as a single?

"Company of Strangers," Colin Hay (Company
of Strangers)As ever, we’ll take any opportunity to hype
the solo career of the former Men at Work frontman.
This album barely even snuck into release, emerging
in what Hay himself described as a "brown-bag edition"
(the cover looks like ratty burlap), but it’s as
good as anything else in his catalog, as this title
cut demonstrates.

"Stranger Things," ABC (Skyscraping)Things started going downhill for Martin Fry
and ABC right around the time of Up, leading
to an eventual hiatus for the band after the release
of 1991’s Abracadabra. In 1997, Fry returned
with the best ABC album in a decade, and this was
its lead-off track.

"Don’t Talk to Strangers," Rick Springfield
(Success Hasn’t Spoiled Me Yet)A classic single from a classic album. Hey,
it is, too, a
classic album! I mean, sure, it’s no Working
Class Dog…but at least it still had cute doggies
on the cover.

"Stranger Than You," Joe Jackson (Night
and Day II)When word leaked out that Joe Jackson was finally
leaving his years of musical experimentation behind
and getting back to his trademark pop sound, fans
were giddy. When it turned out that he was planning
to do a sequel to one of his most popular albums,
they went apeshit. Alas, Night & Day II wasn’t
everything it ought to have been, but at the very
least, the song was easily as solid as anything on
the original album.

"Stranger Than Fiction," Bad Religion (Stranger
Than Fiction)At first, I really wanted the Joe Jackson
song by this title (from his Laughter & Lust album),
but since I didn’t really want to repeat artists
nor did I want to leave off this Bad Religion track,
the problem worked itself out easily enough. Some
diehards don’t rate the Atlantic years of the band
very highly, but I think they kick as much ass as
most anything else in the Bad Religion catalog.

"Strangers When We Meet," The Smithereens
(Especially for You)The lead track from what’s arguably the best
album in the Smithereens’ very strong discography.
Makes you wish they’d go back and write some new songs
instead of re-recording Beatles albums in their entirety.
(Yeah, I know, "Ouch." But I feel very strongly about
this, dammit.)

"Strangers in the Night," Frank Sinatra
(Strangers in the Night)Home of the classic refrain that inspired
the name of the most famous animated Great Dane in
history: Scooby-Doo. What are the chances?

Bonus Track: "Strangers," Big Will Harris
(Novel)I have never heard this song, and I don’t know the
first thing about it. It just popped up on AllMusic.com
when I was researching ideas for this list, and,
well, when you find out that a list-appropriate song
has been recorded by a rapper with the same name
as yourself, it really deserves inclusion, if only
as a bonus track. I can only presume that, like myself,
this fine upstanding individual possesses the so-called
"Big Willie Style."